ZX Appeal

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MEETING MINUTES......
MEETING ПАТЕ...............
SPECIAL КЕРОКТ..........

ZX81 PROGRAM......

BITS&PIECES....................

PREZ SEZ......

THIS ASS UE. aoa

ZXAppeal is a monthly

ZX81 LIBRARY LIST..

10
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41-2
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newsletter put out by the

Vancouver Sinclair Users Group.
For more information on the

SOFTW ARE REVIEW..

ZX81 HDWRE PRJT....

group and ZXAppeal see the backcover.

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TIME DESIGNS .......
2068 TIPS...

lal Report: FRACTALS

f Spec

THS ISSUE...

This month is a bit of a catch-up month as
there wasn’t a newsletter last month due to
the lack of submissions so we include the
minutes of the last three meetings in this
issue - should help you out-of-towners with
what's been happening at the meetings
lately. We start off with a message and
reminder from Gerd that next meeting is
the Annual Meeting where we elect new
officers or elect the same ones for that
matter. REMEMBER: ALL THOSE NOT
ATTENDING THE MEETING ARE
AUTOMATICALLY NOMINATED FOR A
POSITION! Fred N. drops by with a nice
little hardware project for the 7Х81 - а
Proportional joystick interface! Wilf
submitted an article about a few of his
favourite housekeeping programs for the
ZX81 and includes the program listings.

Gerd has made up a list of the titles in the
ZX81 library which is reprinted within. An
addition to our ZX81 library is a Fractal
landscape generator by Fred М, which
automatically means it’s super, and so we
reprint a timely article from Computing
Canada elaborating а little оп this
fascinating topic. We've tried to round out
the issue with a choice selection of reprints

from our exchanging newsletters.
996944006599909099960868S8OREERGRGGATTACOSES

see WANTED: NEWSLETTER PUBLISHERe##

| enjoy putting the newsletter together but |
could use a little help. Up until now Рме
done the entire operation alone: article
selection, article preparation, article retyping
if necessary, cut&paste, layout, photocopying,
collating, folding, stuffing, glueing flap down,
sticking on stamp, printing labels, sticking
on labels, and chucking in the mail box. Im
getting prettu efficient at all of this but
that. doesn't lessen the fact that it does
take some time апа: energy to accomplish.
At the last meeting | announced that |

wanted to pass on the editorship after
completing two more issues. Gerd and |
have discussed this topic and have come to
the agreement that if someone else will
take on the "Publisher"
being the "Editor".

role, РП keep on
Being "Publisher" means

taking the stack of photocopied pages and

fold,stuff,glue,lick,etc. "| make it, you mail
it" Any takers?

SHESSSHKSSKESKASKKAASHSSSASHSSSSHHSHSESEE

BITS & PIECES...

remember the PC8300, the "Chinese ZX81"?
All of you who didn’t grab one of these
little green and cream beauties from the
States can now get one here in ol’ Ka Na
Da. Price is $29.95 plus $3.00 shipping to
Princess Auto Ltd., P.O. Box 1005, 475 Panet
Ва, Winnipeg, MB. R3C 2W7. Phone is
1-800-665-8685 if uou want to put it on
your Visa or M/Card.

--ав mentioned above we've heard from Fred
N. Fred reports he is back in Nelson and is
cheerfully and, more importantly, gainfully
employed fixing stereos, VCRs, satellite
dishes, and all manner of other doodahs
electronic, Fm sure. His latest programming
masterpiece is for the 2Х81, of course, and
generates Fractal landscapes. Fred has
donated a copy of this program to the club
library but be advised that as this program
takes the ZX81 to its limits so must you.

A 64K RAMPAK as well as the 8K SRAM or
equivalent must be in place on the 2Х81.

Fred also reported the next hardware
project he was considering was to mount a
ZX81 to his motorcycle to keep track of all
the mechanical operations of the bike while
going to Ottawa this summer. Just think
what Fred could accomplish if he had a
"real" computer!

..the “grapevine” reports that Uncle Clive
has married. This woman | would like to
meet. She’d have to be mighty interesting
to keep Clive’s attention.

..the “grapevine” also reports rumours that
a desktop computer from Cambridge
Computers is оп the way.

speaking of tous from Cambridge, did
anyone turn to page 172 in the April
PLAYBOY?

-Frank Davis et al who brought you the
successful Mid-West TS Fests in Cincinatti
and Indianapolis are considering whether to
consider whether doing so again this coming
Fall, so says the Indiana T/S newsletter. I'm
sure they’ll be watching the outcome of the

upcoming CATS CapitolFest.

..2ebra Systems is said to be moving very
quickly away from T/S oriented goodies.
Apparently the CapitolFest will see a total
sellout of their remaining T/S stock as they
move into the RS CoCo world. If there was
a particular software title or hardware item
you've been meaning to pick up, DO IT NOW!
l've heard that Zebra won't accept any order
for less than $25 so you better hurry.

„Тит Woods where are you??? Мо one has
been able to get in touch with Tim for quite
a while. The Time Designs telephone is
answered by a machine but messages aren't
returned. We've heard about the various
critical events that have impacted on the
Woods familu: the reported passing of Tim's
dad must have understandably taken Tim's
attention away from these actually quite
frivilous matters but at the same time Tim
must eventually let those who are patiently
waiting to hear from him know what he has
in mind for the future of Time Designs.

„ме had NOVA 1000, multitasking for the
ZX81. Now Lloyd Dreger of the SMUG group
has developed “true multi-tasking for the
2068 a la the QL", to guote Dr.Dreger. The
program to accomplish this was printed in
the SMUG newsletter but under notice of
copyright. We'll be getting in touch with
the SMUG group to ask if we can reprint
the program for our members to try.
MS-DOS emulation on the QL is now a
fact. RMG Enterprises recently sent out a
flyer describing all the wonderful things you
would be able to accomplish with your QL if
you wanted to run MS-DOS without an
MS-DOS machine.

remember this word "SAM". You're going to
be hearing alot about this word in the near
future. The following
“Sinclair Scene“ section of the British
Computer Shopper. "SAM 16 а low-cost
micro from Miles Gordon Technology with a
modern specification - 256К of RAM,
expandable to 512K, 64 colours, 85 column
text or 512 X 192 dot graphics, and optional

780K 3.5" disk drives. From our tests it
seems that SAM is actually MORE
compatible with established Spectrum
programs апа add-ons than Amstrad’s
*genuine’ Spectrum Plus Three. Designer
Bruce Gordon has five years experience

is taken from the

building third-party Spectrum add-ons, so he
knows the ins and outs of Spectrum
compatibility. For instance, SAM recognises
IN 10495, the attribute port which is used
by many programs but not implemented in
the Spectrum Plus 3 or Plus 2A. The SAM
processor is a Z808 running at GMHz - 70
per cent faster than the Spectrum’s 3.5 MHz
Z80A. Most Spectrum games run at the
normal speed as their code tends to be
synchronised to the display frame time but
utilities and languages run noticeably faster
on SAM. The original projected price was
99 pounds but that has been overtaken by
chip price changes. The new prediction is
£199 for the disk version and around £140
for the cassette version. Both come with
256K of memory but can be expanded to
512K by plugging in two extra chips into
pre-installed sockets inside. The SAM ROM
is dramatically different from Sinclair’s. It's
twice as long - 32K, in two 16K banks. The
BASIC interpreter is derived from the
Spectrum Product BetaBASIC. SAM runs
existing Spectrum BASIC programs and the
best features of the ZX BASIC remain. SAM
can load and run ZX BASIC because it
detects the old file format and re-tokenises
the entire program in a brief pause after
loading and before running. You can save
your ZX BASIC program back but it won't
run on a Spectrum - іп this case
compatibility is a one-way path. SAM has a
pallette of 64 display colours, like IBM's EGA
colour display. it supports four graphics
rnodes compared to the Spectrum's
one(shades of the 2068..ed) SAM Пав
flexible memory paging in 16K chunks. You
can divide RAM into several sections, each
of which looks like a separate computer.

Users can swap between displays ог
program areas at any time, so - for
instance- a 256K SAM could arrange its
memory as five 48K sections each with a
different program inside! You can load
several machine-code programs at a time
even if each one expects total control of a
48K computer. You could swap programs by
pressing a special keu that calls up SAM's
pallette and memory manager. The sound

chip is the only obscure part of SAM - it's
a Philips SA-1099,
the AY-3-8912

programmed much like
in the Spectrum 128 but

more sophisticated internally. The SA-1099
has six stereo channels with volume,
envelope and pitch control in steps of 256
tones per octave. SAM also supports the
single-bit sound output of the 48K Spectrum
for compatibility with old programs. Mono
sound comes through the TV speaker and
there’s a stereo socket for ‘Walkman’
headphones at the side of the computer.
The other sockets around the edge of the
machine let you plug in a joy-stick, mouse,
track-ball, TV, RGB monitor, MIDI musical
instuments, cassete recorder, Centronics
printer, and light-pen. There’s even a pair
of 'net-work' sockets which let up to 64
computers share peripherals via a two-wire

local link. It is compatible with the QL but
in practice the two are not very happy
together. There is also an expansion socket,
similar to the Spectrum edge-connector but
with a proper plug. SAMs should be hitting
the market in May. We'll keep you posted."

FSEKKKSCSHKEKHHSHSSSHSSSHKSSSSESSESSESHRRKERAHE

NEW MEMBERS:

Sean Roe, Copperas Cove, Texas,
Larry Anderson, Davenport, lowa
Lionel Keeping, Corner Brook, Nfld

RENEWING MEMBERS:

Bill Rutter, Dan Pinko,
Hugh Polley, Robert Shade

SHSSLSSKSESHSESHHSSHSESSSSSSKSSSSSESESESSESSSS

ЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖАЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖ

MESSAGE FROM YOUR PRESIDENT

Another year has gone by since the last
one, wherefore it is time to announce
the

1989 ANNUAL GENERERAL MEETING

to be held on April 14,1989.
AGENDA

Call to Order
President's Report

Vice President's Report
Treasurer's Report
ELECTIONS OF OFFICERS
Editor's Report
Hardware SIG Report
Librarians' Reports
Other Business

Сп this occasion I would like to
Paraphrase а well known quotation from
the Inaugural Speech of the late
President Kennedy:"Do not ask what your
club can do far you - ask what you can
do for your club !" Please take it to
heart, participate ін the next А.0.М.
and conzider holdina office (it's only
for a year, i.e. my job is up for
grabs). Since due to Rod's thrifty
Management our kitty is im such a good
shape, I suggest that people who hold
club office be exempt from dues for the

terin of their office аж an added
incentive. Without more active
Participation I fear our club is in

danger of dwindling into oblivion.
A new job has been created:

4 NEWSLETTER PUBLISHER

Actually, it has always existed - Rod
haz edited and published our Newsletter
- and is now made available to the
membership because 3 jobs are really a
bit tea much to ask one person to
handle, don't you think? Rod has
volunteered to carry on аз EDITOR and
TREASURER.

Rod and I will attend the CAPITAL FEST
to Бе held in Washington, D.C. - won't

you join uz?

I finally fiaured out how to use the
data base on the GL resulting in the
ех & TS1000/1500 Book Library
Inventory List published in this issue.
I hope to find time to get together
socom with Harry Slot, our new ZX81 &
TS1000/1500 Таре Librarian, to do the
same for the Tape Library.

An event billed as the

NORTHWEST'S LARGEST COMPUTER SWAP MEET

will take place Sat., Apr.22 fram 9
a.m. to S p.m. at 525 - 4th Ave. N. in
Kent (Kent Commons 15,000- square-foot
Exhibition Hall) located between
Seattle and Tacoma. All makes and
models of periferals, software, and
hardware, plus services and technical

assistance will be featured. Admission
i adults and $1 for juniors
( ) Children under 11 will be
admitte free. For more information
call (2

Gerd Breununa

January 13/89 Minutes

==шшшщшщшшщшшч=шшщшшщшшш

-your humble scribe

Although you may not number me
among the triskaidekaphobic masses, to me
this was an ODD meeting. Maybe it was the
flu, which has been rampant these last two
months and which was definitely affecting
Gerd. We sort of had to “remind” him to
get on with the next topic a few times. The
flu, and not having a featured speaker
then, not Freddy's Friday.

The meeting was opened by Glenn Read
at 19:35 after somewhat of a delay because
Gerd had not shown up. The general
consensus was that either the flu or the
snow had stopped him. Rod Humphreys
reported, as editor, that the January
newsletter was a little fatter but that the
next one would be normal Rod also
mentioned many memberships were
currently due. About this time the church
choir practice next door started singing.
Reporting as Treasurer, Rod mentioned we
have about $1150.00 despite his Oz-land
trip. The Australian group was “somewhat
diminished" to use his words. He also came
back raving about the Spectrum Desktop
Publishing program ‘Wordmaster’. On the
way to Australia he stopped over in Hong
Kong and observed the combination of
ostentatious wealth and utter poverty,
finding it staggering. There are lots of
Amstrads down under.

The 2068 & 1000 librarians were both
absent. Rod mentioned receiving a letter
from Fred Nachbaur in which Fred
mentioned he enjoyed Lotus 123. Hmmm.
Mention was made of this scribes tardiness
of late, and Rusty Townsend grabbed the
occasion to distribute free Round-Tu-Its to
all who would have one.

Gerd arrived at 19:58. He started with
his President's report, which consisted of
"I've got the flu." .

‘The hardware group are meeting, as
usual, at Harry's. They are getting into
hi-res displays. Rod asked on behalf of an
inquiring out-of-towner "what was the
status of the 8300 colour pak" and was told
there was no answer yet. The Eprom
burner project is on a back burner.

Bob Dennison reported that KEM. is
closed as far as sales of parts is concerned.

There was а discussion of the
difficulties involved in converting a
Telidon’ monitor [out-of-towners please
note:- thats a type of videotext system

5

iried out in B.C. a couple of years аро].
Harvey donated some video tapes he
received from Rod Gowen, for being a guest
speaker at the Portland Fest last summer,
lo the club video library.

The general question of sponsoring the
next Sinclair Fest was raised. Someone
suggested maybe a few beers in the park
instead?

Guido Vieira is attempting to put.

together a BBS package. Mention was made
of the fact that Larry Kenny was working
on a 2068 BBS. :

Ken A. told a bizarre tale about a fellow
leacher being upset when a TS1000 told
him to F/0. At about this point the meeting

was becoming seriously unravelled. There

was an execrable exploding dog story and
Louis started talking about scratch & sniff
printer paper. I quit taking notes.

March 10/89 Minutes
-by your HUMBLE scribe

At 19:20, Gerd opened the meeting with
14 intrepid spirits present. Because he was
leaving early, Gerd promptly handed the
meeting over to V /Prez Glenn Read.

Glenn spoke of his recent visit toa West
Coast Computer Society meeting, then
mentioned that Kar! Brown had been made
the head of the VVI(City College)
electronics department, and finished up by
passing on some news about some new 16
megabit DRAM from Toshiba.

Rod Humphreys did a quick treasurer's
report ‘cause he too was leaving early.
[Hmmm. The amazing disappearing
executive..] Somebody hollered out "Think
of a number" and Rod said “well we have
about $1100 in ye olde credite union”.
Memberships are about the same number
according to Rod.

In his Editor's report, Rod dropped the
bomb. He will do two more issues of
ZXAppeal and then resign. There was not
enough material for a newsletter issue this
month.

It was mentioned that Time Designs
magazine had a bit of trouble over the
Xmas season with bulk mailing rates and
the US Postal Service. Apparently if US
bulk mail is not processed by a certain
date, they are entitled to trash it. This is a
travesty to which Her Majesty's Most Loyal
Snails are not inclined. Instead, the
intrepid Canuck Posties use sorting
machines to trash your mail. Progress!
Speaking of which, The Woods family is
progressing as well and another wee bairn

is now clamoring for attention. Belated
congrats from all of us here!

The hardware SIG met last month and
played with printers again. Harry Slot is
slowly taking over the ZX81 librarianship
from Jim Horne. Jim has been busy at work
a lot lately.

At this point Rod spoke a bit about the
tape we were to watch. He also reported
cold feet (coolish!..ed.) on the BBS, tho he
did try to con Harvey into taking over the
project. Harvey was entirely non-commital.

Bill Rutter, the 2069 librarian, had
nothing new to throw into the pot.

Ken Grant waxed poetic over the joys of
finding out how very well WD-40 works on
printer ribbons.

Chung Chow told a harrowing tale оГ”
computer fraud in Montreal.

Harvey mentioned that there was a 200
Megabyte serial wafer memory exhibit
from Anamartic, Clive's other company, at
the recent International Solid State
Conference.

Somebody mentioned a device for
automatically switching between fax and
voice on an incoming ‘phone line. Glenn
Read joked that Harry could probably whip
one of these devices up with some biscuit
tins and a couple of cats. ,

Harry Slot then gave us another guided

‘tour through Vancouver electrical. history.

Harry brought in with him some ancient
Edison light bulbs, an arc lamp and a
couple of different meters. One was the
first privately owned voltmeter in western
Canada; the other was the first one publicly
owned. Harry came by these items from an
old pal who ran an electrical shop,67
Hoffmeister Electric, which first opened in
1876.

At this point we were treated to a video
tape of the BC Hydro testing and product
development laboratory where Wilf works.
The tape was great and the meeting broke’
up right afterwards.

February 10/89 Minutes
--by your HUMBLE scribe

The meeting opened at 19:36 with 16
valiant souls present.

Gerd started off with a gentle reminder
that elections were coming up next meeting
and then mentioned some peculiar crashes
he'd been experiencing with both his 1000
system and QL set-up. He was pretty sure
he'd tracked the problem down to a flaky
power supply filter. Gerd then pulled out a

screen dump he'd made with his Brother
1109 printer and QL. A long discussion
about getting paper and ribbons and
various dealer prices was joined. Gerd has
decided that using the QL with a TV sucks.

In his Vice/Pres report, Glenn Read said
he didnt have much Sinclair-specific
information, but mentioned an interesting
TV show about the Symbolics Lisp Machine.
The computer program listened to a woman
playing a piano and also a violin. Then it
accompanied her, highly sucessfully, as she
tried to trick it, unsucessfully, while
replaying the same pieces. Glenn also
mentioned that UBC is moving from MTS to
UNIX, and also that he has his Altair
working. Glenn raised the question of
putting together various presentations on
various topics for meetings. The idea was
unanimously accepted. Mention was made
of the fact that Wilf Rigter had a VHS
Videotape from the Materials Testing lab
where he works that might be suitable for
such a presentation.

Rod H. made the Treasurer's report real
short: we have about CAN$1 150.00.

The Editor's report made casual
mention of some meeting minutes
missing from the last newsletter!!!

Rod showed a Data General 16K “Core”
Memory board he'd brought in. A
discussion on the access speeds of various
; types of memory ensued.

Then Rod taid the biggy on us. Не
proposed, as he mentioned in the January
Editor's column, that the club set up a club
BBS on his second phone line, using the new

Larken "MAX-COM" BBS software and his:

2068 and Larken DD set-up. There was a
lot of discussion, mainly of the Do you
know what you are letting yourself in for?
‘sort. At length, it was moved by Егіс Sakara
and seconded by Harvey Taylor that the

funds be allocated to rent a second phone
line at Rod's place for a period of 4 - 6
months after which the project will be
re-evaluated. Louis Montminy is loaning a
300/1200 baud modem for the project,
until we decide if we want to go ahead and
buy a modem. The question of a name for
the BBS was left open, but Rod had a sly
twinkle in his eye when this was
mentioned.

Gerd wondered aloud who else was
thinking of going to the upcoming CATS
Capitolfest.
enough frequent-flyer points for him to fly.

The Hardware SIG in the person of Harry
Slot reported that things have been kind of
slow as of late, although there will be a
meeting at Harry's this month. [At this point
the choir next door started caterwauling 1

Bil Rutter, as the 2068 librarian,
reported receiving a letter from Tim Ward
about the formation of the SNUG library. A
motion was made and passed to purchase
the five 2068 tapes in that library. Cost will
be US$20.00. [Sorry, I didn't note who made
the motion.]

Jim Horne, the 2X61 librarian, was
present and he had the whole library with
him, but otherwise had nothing to report.

Vince Lee spoke of the genesis of his
64K NVM project written up in the
newsletter last month. He had his prototype

board with him and showed us how he had :

used some extra keys on the add-on
keyboard to switch ‘write-protect’ and
‘reset’. Then Vince told us of a dream he
had of putting a pocket TV (біпсізіг?. ed.)
on the board and making a portable
Sinclair. In this commendable project, Vince
has the lower 8K of ram switchably decoded
above 32K. This aliows him to keep Hi-Z in
ram.

Rod's 'OZ trip accumulated:

Ken Abramson reported that one could
now access the SFU library by modem.
“Getting in is weird, but you don't need to
pay. Ken also mentioned there was now a
'Seniors Net. Harry piped up that it was
probably at 110 baud.

Harvey took the opportunity to mention
that The Web’, an enviromentalist BBS in
Edmonton, had not only all their equipment
and files but also their backup files ripped
off. Curious.

The presentation for the evening was
Harry Slot showing us the fascinating
antique radio, circa 1915, he has cherished
since his youth. He told us how in 1939 asa
very young lad he'd fallen in love with a
big console radio at a friend's house, and
then found a very similiar one in the loft
of а friend's grandparents barn. He
wheedled his parents into letting him buy

, the radio but then W.W.II broke out. During
wartime in occupied Europe, having a radio
was grounds for being shot! He told us of
the ingenious place where he hid the parts..
After the war, he emigrated, taking the
radio with him. In the early fifties he
found some extra radio tubes in an old shop
in Kerrisdale. These are Edison ‘peanut’
tubes of the sort built for the U.S. miltary
during the First World War. He said about
ten years ago he was visited by
representatives from the Smithsonian
who'd heard of his radio and offered to buy
it or at least his spare tubes. Harry showed
us the tuning coils to select different
frequency ranges. He even had the original
manual! While Harry was tuning in
different stations, Gerd wandered off

к {HE Loo “!

PECIAL REPORT:

Fractals spawn computer
graphics applications

by Doug Powell
Computing Canada

If you subscribe to the theorem that mathematics is the
only form of truth in this world, then the discovery of frac-
tal dimensions was virtually inevitable.

; i а Please meet Benoit В.
Mandlebrot.

“T'm going to show you some
pictures of my children,” began
Mandlebrot, a research fellow at
the IBM Thomas J. Watson Re-
| search Centre, in delivering a
special lecture to a crowd of over
; zx 500 at the University of Guelph
ж ы ses last month.

Mandlebrot is generally regarded as the father of fractal geometry,
the mathematical study of forms having a fractal dimension. Begin-
ning with the publication of Fractals: Form, Chance and Dimension
in 1975 (translated into English in 1977) and followed by The Frac-
tal Geometry of Nature in 1982, Mandlebrot is one of those rare scien-
tific breeds whose ideas impact both the scientific and popular

1, КЕШІ

iregular shapes of nature -

domains.

` “Euclid provided one way of finding order in chaos,” Mandlebrot

told the diverse audience of multi-

disciplinary professors, students.

and members of the general pub-
іс. “And I would like to present to
you a second way to find order in
chaos, which is based upon differ-
nt kinds of shapes, which are
called fractals.”

There are many colorful analo-
ies to describe fractals to those
vho do not excel in the mathe-
natical arts. A line is one-dimen-
ional and can be expressed by the
umber one. Similarly, a square is
wo-dimensional and a sphere
hree-dimensional, represented by
he numbers two and three respec-
ively. An example of a fractal may
e represented by 1.4; hence the
erm fractional dimension.

In essence, fractals explain the
irregularites in the world. And the
range of practical implications is
surprisingly large.

Think of it this way. Humans
love to categorize. Living or-
ganisms are classified into species,
genus, phyla, kingdoms and so on.
Data is arranged in folders and
files. But the rigid manner of
classification taught in high
school often gives way to excep-
tions at the university level. Frac-
tals are a mathematical tool to de-
scribe exceptions, irregularities
and roughness.

Fractals also repeat themselves
over many ranges of magnifica-
tion. A coastline, with its jagged
edges, is a fractal shape.

Photographed from a satellite, with minor flaws — using only
the west coast of Canada appears several thousand bytes of memory.
jagged. A five kilometre segment ^ The result is that more images
photographed from an airplane can be stored in the computer

ap poe pero mn Pu memory and more efficiently
потегао e bays anc Intels. 90 СОЄЅ transmitted over cable or radio

the stretch of shoreline you can see links And PCtisers cari create thelr
with your naked eye or measure von images at Horne

with your outstretched arms. The are only has to fol-
Whether you view it from a satel- [ow two rules arbitrarily designed
lite x through a microscope, the ү, place a point at a certain loca-
coastline still looks jagged. tion. By randomly following one

Mandlebrot's theory says that ite or the other
eon - repeated thou-
all fractals are self-similar and can sands of times — a fractal

be used to find hidden order in the emerges.

apparent chaos of nature. When a Notwithstanding its practical
numerical value is assigned, the ir- computer applications, fractal
theory continues to be an ex-

clouds, rippling water or the struc- tremely useful tool to predict and

ture of a protein - can be model variation
measured and simulated on paper; Ж |
or by computer. Fractals essentially underlie
Engineers, scientists and artists апу operating system on this
worldwide have started to utilize planet. |
fractal theory to construct com- Applications that could evolve
puter simulations to explain a from fractal theory in the future
plethora of problems. For example: are currently unforeseeable. But
€ To predict how clay flows under with a theory that synthesizes
pressure. modern and classical mathemati-
е To help oil companies extract Cal ideas into one, and graphically
oil more efficiently by changing utilizes the computer for expres-
their pumping methods in accord- Sion, the prospects provide fodder

ance with the rock strata that oc- for the vivid imagination.
curs in a given well. And without the computer,

; го fractals would have remained a di-
"s px pred e version for the few rather than a

€ To aid in the synthesis of de-tool for the many.
signer proteins for industrial
enzymes or pharmaceuticals.

€ To help explain the fluctuation
of exchange rates.

€ To predict the structure of the
universe.

But perhaps their most useful
application is in the area of com-
puter graphics.

Computer simulations of natu-
ral phenomena such as forests,

mountains, cratered planets and

coastlines have traditionally re-
quired millions of bytes of
memory.

Using fractals, the same im-
ages can be generated — albeit

+ HENUPRO

БЕН [EIER
PRINT HT 21,0

INPUT ZX
PRINT AT 21,8;"H
PER MENU?"
INPUT NX

LET NX32-zZXsH*
LET START -98a88
LET PRINTMENU

iN*2714'.
570 LET H£iz,NXsz3z2-z8
z"SELECT MENU”
580 NEXT М
590 NEXT Z
sae „БЕТ ns X. Tag t den

С

ni

-6
5
3
5
5
в
в
=
8
8
=
3
3

fi up Un e c mie mun mio e

нина Е

пе REM RRBs See
PRINT AT HPOSI4N,5; ма; CHRS

osis MENUKEY
RH

соз UB 9500
TOR N=1 TO NX
SUB PRINTHENU

BR INT ВТ MPOS LIN 5; "EENE
течове телата
670 ТЕ Z$="" THEN СОТО 2590
580 LET A$ (Z,S24N-25 TO зазн-
S690 NEXT М
8683 LET N=NX-4

3730 FOR N=] TO NX
3740 GOSUB РЕТМГМЕНИ
2756 PRINT AT МРО51 +М 5"
BROUI TNE ADDRESS 1
INPUT 2%
Ir. даи THEN сото атда
IZ N] SVAL Z$
Ет" ч

} LET NzNX-2

PRINT RT 21,0; “MENU POLRI TO
{LINE @ TO LINE ";19-МУ;

INPUT HPüs.

S820 IF MPOS<@ OR HMPOS»18-NX THE
N ,U9TO 2810

8818 LPRINT " о MENU-"; CHRS
істі
8820 LÉRINT AS{Z),,
аза NEXT Z
S48 RETURN

a

МЕНО @ - LINE 8
SELECT MENU
MENU OB - LINE Ө

Са Tht pee fa

Ca PO e ба

I did some rooting around in my tape library and discovered some
Programs that I aluays wanted to submit to tne VSUG neusletter but
somehow slipped awar. The MENU program is what is sometimes
referred to as a SHELL. This means that it is meant to be wrapped
around other programs to make tnem more friendly. The philosophy
behind this program is to give a structure or framework for your
program development. МЕНО shouid be loaded and run -to produce a
set of menus which the user can program with a selection of menu
items. The number of menus and the length of menus.is entered Бу
the user. After a few moments a menu text array is formatted with
item numbers and the top menu is displayed. The last item of each
menu is the submenu select function and this is now used to select
the last menu. For example if you formatted 10 menus of 10 items
each; then select from items O to 9 the last item (9). The prompt
asks the user to enter a menu number and the last of these is menu
which the user enters. Now а neu menu (902 pops into view which
has been programmed with some usefull utilities. The first of
these allows the user to reposition the menu at some new screen
location to accomodate other user programmed displays. Just select
the item by number and the prompt handles the rest. The next item
is the MENU TEXT editor which is used to compose the text for each
menu. First select the item and then select the menu you which toa
modify. At the prompt enter text Жос each line of the menu and
terminate text with a N/L. To skip a line simply type N/L and to
erase a line enter a space followed by N/L. The menus should be
logically ordered to combine similar functions in each menu. (for
example the utilities menus. Now return to the next item in the
last menu uhich is the SUBROUTINE ADDRESS editor. This function is
selected to assign a line number to each menu item to which the
program jumps when that particular item іп a menu is selected. The
subroutine at that line number is written in the conventional
manner and ends with a RETURN to the menu program. As an example
look at the MENU program listing which is annotated to make it
easier to understand. Well that is all for now and HAPPY MULTIPLE
CHOICE PROGRAMMING. LOGOFF UILF R.

MENU 3 - LINE 8 MENU 3 - LINE 3

SUBROUTINE ADDRESS EDITOR |
MENU TEXT EDITOR
SELECT MENU

Vo Па pes Ca
ewe
кана

Cim

HENU 8 - LINE 2

MENU SCREEN POSITION
Si ES ITOR

Ca mares бу
оюы

SELECT MENU

MENU 8 - LINE 3

MENU SCREEN POST
SUBROUTINE ADDRESS
MENU TEXT EDITOR
SELECT MENU

VANCOUVER SINCLAIR USERS GROUP - ZX81 & TS1000/1500 BOOK LIBRARY

Listed in order of :'TITLE","AUTHOR"*,"ISBN'*,"REMARKS"
*-unknoun if not listed

"The Gateway Guide to the ZX81 and ZX80","Mark Charleton","0-916688-27-5","More
than 70 Programs"

"The ZX81 Companion", "Robert Maunder","0-916688-26-7","Graphics, Information
Processing, Education, Monitor Listing"

"MASTERING YOUR TIMEX SINCLAIR 1000 PERSONAL COMPUTER","Tim Hartnell and
Dilwin Jones","0-553-23241-X","Beyond the instruction manual"

"YOUR TIMEX SINCLAIR 1000 AND ZXB1'","Douglas Hergert","0-89588-099-7","Learn
how to : basics, program, calculate, bar graphs, pictures"

"TIMEX/SINCLAIR 1000 DICTIONARY AND REFERENCE GUIDE ","Joseph C. Giarratano",
"0-88022-041-4","Includes section on Z80 CPU architecture"

"BETTER PROGRAMMING FOR YOUR SPECTRUM AND ZX81","S. Robert Speel (consulting
editor Tim Hartnell)","0-00-636610-4","Programming techniques and
programs"

"MACHINE LANGUAGE PROGRAMMING MADE SIMPLE FOR YOUR ZX81/280","Beam Software",
"0-86161-101-2","Also for TS1000/1500"

"51 GAME PROGRAMS FOR THE TIMEX SINCLAIR 1000 AND 1500 ","Tim Hartnell",
"0-451-12598-3","Moving graphics, driving, board, word & letter games;
simulations"

"TRS-80 Assembly-Language Programming", "William Barden, Jr.","Library of
Congress # 79-63607","Uses Z80 CPU"

"THE SINCLAIR ZX81 programming for real applications ","Randle Hurley",
"0-88056-090-8","Bulk storage, word processing, financial, banking,
educational"

"THE ZX81 POCKET BOOK","Trevor Toms","0-8359-9524-O","Programs, introduction
to machine code, adventure game "

"49 EXPLOSIVE ADVENTURE GAMES FOR THE ZX81","Tim Hartnell",
"0-8359-2086-0","Programming instructions and game rules"

"A COURSE IN BASIC PROGRAMMING", "Hugo Davenport","ZX80 Operating Manual"

"TIMEX User Manual","Steven Vickers (with revisions by C.F. Durang)","TS1000
Basic Programming"

"ZX81 BASIC PROGRAMMING","Steven Vickers", "User Manual"
"TECHNICAL SERVICE DATA FOR TS1000/ZX81","SAMS COMPUTERFACTS", "FOLDER"
"CATALOGUE","E. ARTHUR BROWN CO. NO. 2","COMPUTER ACCESSORIES"

"DOCTOR ZX81","EXCERPT from ""NOT ONLY 30 PROGRAMS FOR THE SINCLAIR 2Х81"""

10

VANCOUVER SINCLAIR USERS GROUP - ZX81 & TS1000/1500 MAGAZINE LIBRARY

Listed in order of: "TITLE", "ISSUES", "REMARKS"

"PERSONAL SOFTWARE", "WINTER'83, SPRING % SUMMER'84,AUTUMN'85 ","British,

mostly Spectrum"

“TIMEX SINCLAIR USER","VOL. 1, #1 TO #7 incl.","A classic"

"SYNC MAGAZINE","VOL.2, #4 VOL.2, #5 VOL.3, £1 TO #6 incl., VOL.4, Z1 &

Z22","THE FIRST ONE"

"ZX COMPUTING","OCT/NOV'83, DEC/JAN'84 TO AUG/SEP'84, DEC/JAN'85 TO АРЕ'86,
JUN'86, АПС"86, SEP'86, MAY'87","British"
#38 (МАҮ"85) 4 ANNUAL FOR

“SINCLAIR USER","#20 (NOV'83), #24, #29, 430,

1985", "British"

"WHAT МІСКО?" , "MARCH '84","British"

"PERSONAL COMPUTER GUIDE", "SPRING

market"

'83","Comparison of

computers оп the

"SINCLAIR PROGRAMS","JUL/AUG'82, SEP'83, FEB'85","British"

Reprinted below from Sinclair User is a review of
the program used to created page 2 & 3 of this issue.

WORD-MASTER AND
TYPELINER

Cardex/£14.95 and £10.50

These аге, | must say the most
impressive pieces of software I've
ever seen for the Spectrum.No
kidding. The output of these programs,
when put through an appropriate
printer (and were only talking Epson
matrix with ESC “L” 120dpi graphics
mode, here) is of such good quality
that | had to look twice before
agreeing that it could possibly have
been originated on a Spectrum. Word-
Master has been out for a while, and is
a pretty good wordprocessor program
in its own write (ho ho). But with the
addition of Typeliner, an extension
program which you load into Word-
Master, it becomes a powerful page
lay out program. Using easily
remembered single letter commands,
you can position blocks of Word-
Master text on an A4 page on screen,
using boxes and lines, and a number
of excellent and readable fonts. This

could be your chance to get into
publishing. Using another program
called Headliner (unfortunately not -
available at time of going to press), you
can paste graphics into your page, too.
So you could conceivably use pictures
grabbed using the video digitisers we
Showed you a couple of months ago,
just to add an air of professionalism to
the output.

Plovdiv, bulgaria,

Heres the Typeliner laying out a page.
As you can see the A4 page is pictured
onthe right of the screen as a white
rectangle, into which you physical

lay the text files from memory. The
boxes and columns are sized with the

cursor keys and the usual QAOP
SPACE combo, which makes for very
accurate shaping and positioning of
blocks of text on the page. Page
previews are available, letting you see
how youre doing.

The program worked brilliantly on
our office set up, which is quite
amazing really, considering the fact
that nothing works on our system,
given the slightest reason not to! No
crashes, nice bold output on the
battered old Epson, and ease of page
editing. Also, as well as some very
nice fonts to play with, there's a font
editor too, so you can either design
your own fonts from scratch, or delete
Some of the less useful characters (/,
(..$,[.] etc . ..) to save memory The
grid on which you design the fonts is a
massive 24 x 24, unlike the piddling 8
x 8 usual Spectrum font, which
obviously makes for some more
interesting typestyles.

There's a lot of work gone into this
Suite of programs, and in my opinion
theyte worth every nickel of the £35
you'l pay for the whole lot of em. 1 1

THE ZX BREADBOARDER
Project #1

A PROPORTIONAL JOYSTICK INTERFACE

For the 2X81, TS1000, TS1500 and PC8300-T

Here is a little project for Kitters, tinkerers, and other hardware hackers. No exotic parts, yet
gives you a wonderful pointing and control tool. Immediately position a cursor anywhere on the
screen (32x24), play "Flight Sinulator" like it was supposed to be, and stay tuned for other
wonderful modified programs that are waiting in the wings!

The hardware is designed around the software, which was designed around the hardware. 1 think that
Wilf Rigter will get a chuckle out of it. The simple hardware (3 cheap chips) is read by an equally
simple software routine (3 280 commands). The software routine is nestled into a copy of the
Keyboard routine (0288) which is called instead by the vertical sync interrupt routine (5104 node
processor), so the joystick is in a sense "interrupt driven," even though such shenanigans are
supposedly not possible on the 2X.

FREEBIE DEPT: Anyone who wishes nay do anything he/she wishes with this hardware design and artwork.
The software in this article are equally in the public domain. 14 some enterprising fellow wants to
put these together for sale to others, he has ny full permission (and condolances).

MORE FREEBIES: I wrote up a fairly tho-

rough article on this beast, which is 5 бок Vt! П р
recommended reading for РЛ experi- p за юр Ee БОК бок ae EL ре оч
menters, Plus, you just might pick up a 45 ak #2 | 9921 sick + 7415
couple other things on the side. It is E МС Жок “ЕБ =>
being made available to the Vancouver RADIO SHACK 26-2006( V*? в
ZX User Group, who may make copies ісі 741532
available to others at nominal cost. Bia a woe: :

токе < в О

кр 1

Also available are two PJl-conpatible
games. "JOY-FLIGHT" is the Psion/Tinex
Flight Simulator adapted for the PJI.
The program's realisa takes a quantun
leap with the use of a proportional
joystick. 'JOY-BUST" is the excellent
"Breakout" program, with a twist.
(Stand by for Merchant of

Venus, PJ] style.)

ein

Ci - - .002 uFd. disc or mylar capacitor Дио 46-ріп edge connector, 100" spacing,
C2 - .0015 uFd. disc or mylar capacitor P2 key at position 3

C3,C4 - .01 uFd. disc capacitors А бука, rs connector,

D1,D2 - 1N4148 or IN914A glass diodes 2 зле ane POS) SOS |

ІСІ - 741532 quad 2-input OR gate RI 100K, 1/44 5Х film resistor

1C2 - МЕ554 dual timer R2 - 160К, 1/44 5X film resistor

IC3 - 7415125 quad tri-state buffer R3 - — 2.2K, 1/44 SK film resistor

Jl - 100K Proportional Joystick, vee Е EX estu = fila resistors
12 Radio Shack 26-3008 or equivalent d inear trimpots

P Ут y FN 1939

THE HARDWARE

PC BOARD ARTWORK

Copy this actual-size artwork to a sheet of
photo-copy mylar. Your local copy shop should
be able to help you out for under $2. Expose,
develop, etch and drill the board. Tin-plate
if desired. Fix any breaks.

Install the eight wire jumpers on the
component side. (These are non-intersecting,
50 you can use a 2-sided board if you're a
perfectionist. Harry, I’d love to see your
board when it’s done.)

Install the 3 14-pin DIP sockets. Before installing the socket for IC2, run a 30 AWG bare jumper through pins
4 and 10 before inserting the socket to solder it. Alternately, jumper these two pins with a piece of resistor
wire-end on the wiring side. Install the 5 resistors, 2 diodes and 4 capacitors. See the component layout

diagran.

Use a DIP header, 1/2 of a DIP socket, or whatever (spacing is .200") to connect to the joystick, which has

been modified as per the schematic.

Install the edge-connector and finger
board, or make other arrangements for
connecting to your computer. Install the
trimpots. If you can’t find the little
cermet jobs with .100' lead spacing, use
silicone, wire, and bubble-Qm as
required.

Alternately, wire it up on a piece of
plated perf-board. 1611 probably be done
a lot faster that way anyhow.

To make the component layout diagram work
as an "overlay" for your board, reduce it
to 974.

aggggagadggggdggaggagguu
gggagggggguggggagognud
MP NT

13

LISTING 1; MACHINE-CODE LOADER PJI SOFTWARE

1 REM XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
хххххххххххххххххххххххххххххххх

JOOOOCOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOQOXC LISTING 3: JOYSTICK MACHINE-CODE
хххххххххххххххххххххххххххххххх
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX addr HEXCODE NAME MNEMONIC
хххххххххххххххххххххххххххххххх ===
ххххххххххххххххх 40AZ 263440 DP-1 LD HL,¢FRMS>
5000 REM М/С LOADER 4045 2B DEC HL
*020 CLS 4084 ЗЕ?Ғ ОР-Р LD A,7F
9030 PRINT "ADDRESS? "; 4048 А4 AND H
9040 INPUT AD па? BS OR L
9050 PRINT AD,"BYTES? "; 406A 7C го &,H
$040 INPUT BY 404B 2003 JR NZ ANTH
9070 PRINT BY 40AD 17 RLA
9060 FOR N=AD ТО &D*EY-1 404Е 1802 JR OVNC
9090 INPUT V 40BG 44 ANTH LD B, CHL}
9100 POKE N,U 40Е: 37 SCF
9110 PRINT (STRE (9%100022<2 TO 4082 47 OVNC LD н,а
222”; 40ES 223440 LD (FRMSO,HL
9120 NEXT N f 4086 ро RET NC
9130 STOF 4087 СОБВ02 DP-2 CALL KBESC
40B^ ED4B2540n LD BC,CLASK?
40ВЕ 222540 LD (LASK), HL
40с: 73 LD А,В
40C2 C402 арс а,02
40С4 Е042 SBC HL, вс
TABLE 1: PROP. JOYSTICK MACHINE 4006~342740 LD A,CDBENC?
CODE, DECIMAL VALUES дас? ва OR H
ICCA ES OR L
ADDRESS? 16624 BYTES? 90 40ce SS LD Е,В
засс 0606 LE 8,06
001:031:031:033:130:044:227:178: 40СЕ 213B40 LD HL,CDFG
211:255:042:012:044:203:252:205: 4001 CES86 RES 9,¢HL3
145:002:237:095:001:001:025:062: 40D3 2008 JR NZ NKEY
245:205:181:002:043:205:146:002: 4005 С87Е БІТ 7, СН.)
195:162:044:000:000:000:000:000: 40D7 CBCó SET 0.¢HL?
221:033:142:044:201:253:070:052: 4007 cs RET 2
058:052:064:184:040:250:033:130: 40DA 05 DEC B
064:001:000:000:030:031:203:102: 40DB 00 МОР
040:001:012:203:110:040:001:004: 40DC 37 SCF
035:029:032:242:062:023:184:048: 4000 212740 NKEY LD HL,DENC
001:071:043:126:230:192:050:022: 40E0 3F CCE
065:201: 40Е1 СВ1О RL B
40ЕЗ 10ЕЕ LP-B DJNZ LP-E
40ES 44 LD в, «но»
40Е6 7B ір &,E
40E7 FEFE CP FE
40Е9 ОҒ SBC 4,4
40EA 041Е LD B,1
3
LISTING 2: ROM-CODE UPLOADER pa 2 кы کو‎
2000 LET AD=14544 ДЕК 22 io HOA
8005 FOR N-553 TO 630 40F0 OLIFIF LD BC,IFIF

БОТО. POKE AD PEEK М 40F3 218240 JOYS LD HL, ELFE
a кын ااا‎ 40F& EDB2 INIR
8020 STOP

2
o

40FE D3FF
40FA 260C40
40FD CBFC
40FF С09202
4102 EDSF
4104 010119
4107 3EFS
4109 СбОВ502
410С 26
410D CD9?202
4110 C3A240
41123700
4114 00
4115 00
4116 00
4117 00

4118 DD21A246

411C С?
4110 FD4634
4120 3843540
4123 B8
4124 28FA
4126 218240
4129 010000
412C 1E:F

о W) UJ W C)

ЕЕЕ bh bb F1
оу с
AB A UN

eA мз pê på қа мл ва ы.

4i 3E ES
413F 3001
4141 47
4142 2B
4143 7E
4144 ESCO
4146 321641
4149 C9

D-EN

BUTN

ENGA

DCOD
WAIT

LOGP

INCX
Nü-X

INCY
NOG-Y

BUT?

QUT ‹ЕР›,А
LD HL,<¢DFIL)

SET 7,H
CALL MRGN
LD A,R

Го BC,1901
LO A,FS
CALL SCRN
DEC HL
CALL MRGN
JF DP-1
NOP

NOP

NGF

МОР

МОР

LD B,(FRMS)
LD A,CFRMS
CP B

JR Z WAIT
LD HL,BUFF
LD ЕС,0000
LD E,1F

MT 4, (HL)
JR 2 NO-x
INC C

BIT S,CHLD

wrk 2 NÜ-Y

AND CG
LD свитмо „а
КЕТ

LISTING 4: BASIC DEMO
AND JOYSTICK CALIBRATION

REM USR 16664 TO ENGAGE
REM USR 16669 TQ DECQDE
REM PEEK 14642 => BUTTONS
REM basic demotcalibration
REM BY F.NACHBAUR, S.M.C.
RAND USR 16664
LET D-16669
LET B=14662
POKE 16418,0
LET Х-0
LET Y-0
POKE 16418,0
50 PRINT AT Y,X;" "АТ 0,0;"0"
;AT 0,31;"0";АТ 23,0;"0";АТ 23,3
1;"0*
55 LET L-USR D
60 LET Y-INT (1/256)
70 LET X=L-256*Y
25 LET АФ-(СНР% 23 AND NOT PEE
B)*CCHR$ 128 AND PEEK B)
80 PRINT АТ Y,X;A%
ға сото sa

ENTERING THE SOFTWARE

Use Listing 1 to enter the decimal values
of Table 1 into a 1 REM line. Then use
Listing 2 to steal the required code froa
the ROM. Finally use Listing 4 to
calibrate and demonstrate the use of the
Joystick. Listing 3 is the source-code of
the machine-code in the 1 REM.

FUN AND GAMES DEPARTMENT: Change the LD
HL,nnnn at JOYS (40F3) to point instead to
the first byte of the display file. Now
engage the joystick with RAND USR 14444,
You get a graphic demonstration of what
"interrupt driven" means, as you move the
Joystick around. Just don’t press the
button! (However, "button 2° would be
allowable.) Incidentally, this was my best
debugging tool during development.

Improvements have been and will continue
to be made to the DCOD decoding routine.
Joia in the fun!

The notice below is first appeared in the Apr/89
issue of the CCATS newsletter "The Plotter". It
helps explain what is the current situation with
Time Designs Magazine.

Tim Woods, Editor and Publisher of
TIME DESIGNS Magazine has announced:
“Our Timex Sinclair magazine is
still very much alive, even though
some of our recent issues have been
released late!"

Due to the birth of а new son,
Anthony David Woods, during the
Holiday season, both Tim and
Stephany Woods, who produce the
computer magazine as a family
"hobby" and оп a part-time basis,
found a lot of their energy was

devoted to the new addition.

Tim commented, “I was sorry to hear

that SYNCWARE NEWS, another Timex
publication, has folded. But,
understandably, it has become
increasingly difficult for most

editors and publishers to work on a
limited time schedule and with a
declining user base, to keep going.
I'm not joking when I say that to
produce a newsletter, or magazine of
any size is a tremendous amount of
work...a real labor of love! Me are
re-organizing our efforts here at
TIME DESIGNS to ensure that our
magazine is published for many years
to come. I feel it is a worthwhile
project."

On the eve of releasing their Fourth
Anniversary issue, several changes
have been made to improve service to

TIME DESIGNS customers. First of
all, the bi-monthly designation of
issues has been dropped. Instead,

only a numbering of volume and issue
will be used. For example, “VOLUME
5 ISSUE ONE" will indicate the
upcoming anniversary issue (formerly
the Nov/Dec "ВВ issue).

"We just felt it would be redundant
for our readers to receive a winter
issue in the springtime. Our
customers will get every issue they
have paid for! We will offer
subscription for both six and twelve
issues. Starting with VOL.5 NO.1 we
will continue to release issues
approximately sixty days apart. A

16

lot of electronic journals are
numbered-this way, in fact we have
always numbered TIME DESIGNS along
with the bi-monthly designation, so
it shouldn't be too confusing."
Along with this numbering system,
some new software will be put
on-line to track subscription
accounts.

"I think our mailing label and the
expiration information was kind of
confusing for some individuals. The
new software should alleviate this
Problem. Instead of an expiration
date, there will be a number in the
upper right-hand corner. This will
indicate how many issues are

remaining." (EXAMPLE:
five issues remaining).

Г51 indicates

TIME DESIGNS readers will
notice a new look, a new logo,
upgrades to several sections.

also
and

"To lighten my own work load, I have
arranged for some of our regular
contibutors to take over whole
sections and be completely
responsible for their content and
appearance. For instance, Stan Lemke
and Bill Ferrebee will be
collaborating on a regular TS2068
secion."

Other sections, including the one
for the Sinclair QL will get similar
treatment. Extensive use of
telecommunications (modems) for

author submissions will also help to
speed up magazine production.

“If anyone has experienced missed
issues or Similar problems, we want
to encourage them to drop us a
postcard or note. We also maintain
a 24-hour message mashine for this
purpose (503-824-2658). We will
correct the problem, just as soon as
we possibly can."

“We have

appreciated everbody’s

patience with some of our delays.
Generally, most everyone has been
really understanding. Our Timex

Sinclair community is made up of a
great bunch of people. In return, we
will continue to publish a quality
magazine." ў

Reprinted from SUM Magazine Nov/85

Programming Tips on the 2068

Sometimes a programming problem can be
easily solved by using certain tricks.
Here are a few tips and techniques to help
you possibly the next time you get stuck.
I hope you will find them useful.

THE SAVE PROBLEM

To replace the message "Start tape then
press Enter" you just need to POKE 26689,
38. Try:

10 PRINT #0; "All
ready."'"Start your
that press ENTER"

20 POKE 26689,38:SAVE "demo"

right, I'm
tape" '"AFTER

For those with a Spectrum ROM, POKE
23736,181 starts SAVEing immediatly,
without waiting for a key press.

THE SCROLL PROBLEM

This little machine code routine
scrolls a certain number of lines during a
certain time. These codes can be put
anywhere in memory.

10 CLEAR 49999

20 FOR 1<50000 To 50020
30 READ A: POKE I,A

40 NEXT I

50 DATA 205,220,27,205,96,
38,237,67,250,91, 197,
253,70,192,205,59,9,
193,16,246,201

Use this routine with INPUT USR add,x,y
where add-start address and x= 15+ line to

be scrolled, y-how many times. With the
routine at 50000, try:

10 CLS

20 PRINT "....Don't поуе..............
30 INPUT АТ 0,0;"write something:";LIN
E a$

40 INPUT USR 50000,22,1

50 PRINT AT 21,0;a$

60 GOTO 30

THE LOAD PROBLEM

Large programs are generally recorded
in several parts on cassette. After the

loader program, a screen presentation is
loaded and the main program is now ready
to be loaded. But it’s not very esthetic
when the program name overprints the
screen presentation.

To avoid this situation, we can add to
the loader program POKE 23570,16 and in
the main program, we must restore by using
POKE 23570,6. PRINT and LIST will be
corrupted otherwise.

THE INKEY$ PROBLEM

Suppose we have: 50 IF INKEYS="Y" THEN

GOTO 100. If the keyboard is in lowercase
mode, the computer will see "y" instead of
Again

"Y" and pass on to the next line.
POKE will rescue us: ы
РОКЕ 23658,8 for UPPERCASE mode
POKE 23658,0 for LOWERCASE mode
POKE 23617,2 for GRAPHIC mode
POKE 23617,1 for EXTENDED mode

Reprinted from the March '87 issue of

TIMELINEZ.

bv Tim Swenson

This is a little neatsy-keen
program that I originaly wrote
years ago, on the ZX81.

The user types up to 10
strings of up to 80 characters

each. The strings are then
Slowly "marched" across the
screen, very much like the
signs on Bart. The letters

start on the right and scroll

off to the left.

The screen that is used to
show the banner can be fancied
up a bit. Playing around with
the stipple of the strips can be
fun.

So, here it is. Have fun
with it. It might come in handy
someday.

100 WINDOW 512,256,0,0 PAPER 0
: INK 4

110 DIM аъ<10,80)

120 clear data

130 set screen2

140 get a11

150 set screenl

160 REPeat loop

170 FOR x = 1 TO 10

180 IF LENCa$(x)) < 2 THEN NEXT
x

190 LET length = LEN (a$ (x>)

200 LET start s-1 : LET

last s-1

210 FOR y= 1 TO ПЕК<а5 <х)) +32
220 PAUSE 10

230 LET key-KEYROW(O)

240 f key

250 IF key<>0 THEN GO TO 160
260 LET start at - 32-y

270 IF y»32 THEN start ағ-0
280 - LET x$-a$(x)&" "

290 AT 4,start_at : PRINT

x$(start s TO last 5)

18

2570 STRIP

300 LET last s = last s +1
310 IF y>31 THEN LET start s
= start s +1

320 NEXT y

330 AT 4,0: PRINT" "

340 NEXT x

S50 END REPeat loop

360 DEFine PROCedure f key

S70 SELect ON key

380 ON key - 2

390 веб screen2
400 get string
410 set всгееп!
420 ON key = 8
430 clear data
440 set screen2
450 get all

460 ON key - 16
470 Set screen2
480 EXIT loop
490 set screenl
500 STOP

510 END SELect

520 END DEFine f key

530 DEFine PROCedure set screenl
540 MODE 8 : WINDOW 512,256,0,0
550 PAPER O : INK 4 : CLS

560 CSIZE 3,1

1: AT 2,0: PRINT "

580 STRIP 1 : AT 6,0: PRINT "

590 STRIP 4 : AT 1,0: PRINT "

600 STRIP 4 : AT 7,0: PRINT "

610 STRIP 3 : AT 0,0: PRINT "
n

620 STRIP 3 : AT 8,0: PRINT ”
630 STRIP 0

640 END DEFine set_screenl

650 DEFine PROCedure set screen2
660 MODE 4 CSIZE 0,0

670 CLS

680 END DEFine set_screen2

690 DEFine PROCedure clear_data
700 FOR x = 1 TO 10

710 а$ (х) =" "

720 NEXT x

730 END DEFine clear_data

740 DEFine PROCedure get_string
750 PRINT "Enter String Number
to Re-enter "

760 INPUT x

770 PRINT : PRINT “Enter New
String Message "

780 INPUT x$
790 LET а5<х) = x$
800 PRINT : PRINT "Do You Want

To Do Another? (Y/N)"

810 INPUT x$

820 IF x$-"y" OR x$-"Y" THEN
GO TO 750

830 CLS

840 END DEFine get string

850 DEFine PROCedure get а11
860 PRINT "How Many Message
Strings Do You Want To Enter?"

870 INPUT y

880 PRINT

890 FOR x = 1 TO y

900 PRINT "Enter String
Number #";x

910 INPUT x$

920 LET а$ (х) = x$

930 PRINT

940 NEXT x
"999 END DEFine get all

ЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖ

ЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖЖ
1 БЕМ eee ethis program is off
the "Cleveland" topes. The auth
or is unknown but credit is exte
nded to him for a great program.
2 БЕН
3 EEN
4 EEN
5 НЕМ _ ۴
58 РОКЕ 23658,8
55 НЕМ К
Eemove line 58 if you want
the hidden words to appear
in small letterz.This will
Ж help in debugging
il CLS ;
.15 BORDER Б: РАРЕЕ Б
тай CLS y
i58 PRINT АТ 8,8; INK 2;"
HIDDEN WORT"
288 РЕІНТ ІНЕ 3;" PUZZLE
GENERATOR"???
i88 INPUT "HOW нану вонз HIG.
zz Нах."; МЕ
482 ТЕ HEo22 THEN GO TO 488
458 INPUT “HOW кант COLUMNS HID
Е? 16 Мак." НС
452 IF НС 1Б THEN GO TO 458
5880 LET НС-МЕЖНС
558 LET P£-'-"
БВЙ LET Ke="#"
656 LET 15-"+"
тая LET НИ-й |
150 DIN HECHE, HC?
S88 DIM HESE, 16?
925 DIM Е(5й8,29
550 DIM 0¢8,2)
388 DIM SNe)
358 ПІН USE?
isaa8 DIN 0:58)
1766 CLS
2388 LET Ни-а
8358 LET E-8
2488 LET HW-HH-*1

the les
“ӨЛ send
US

NT "GRID SIZE IS ";MR;"
NT “YOU HAVE HIDDEN "; HW
NT "GRID IS ";ІНТ (E/HCH
NT GRID IS C

INT „PRESS ENTER TWICE ИН
INT INK 2;"EHTEE WOED #";
Max. 5и)"

NUS5@ THEN PRINT : PRINT
"MAX. 50 WOEDS USED, PEE

ta

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со comet

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m

tba ebi

E$-"" THEN GO

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АТА а АТАҒА

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2» тоо 0-m-O0O»7

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